We're all stories in the end..

Sometimes, old movies make us realise that we have grown up, literally and figuratively.

Only on weekends am I able to catch up on the themes of some of our national dramas: which protagonist got plastic surgery done; who got married thrice to a man who forgot his memory; how big is the house of that poor man in X or Y story; etc etc. And of course, I catch up on the national news (another source of drama these days) in a big (screen) way. Most of all, I catch up with my parents and spend some quality time laughing, thanks to some awesomely made shows and some awfully made shows. Mum was flipping channels yesterday when I told her to stop at Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. I have watched the movie many times while growing up, and I was under the impression that I would still go ga-ga over the dialogues and the feelings behind those dialogues. I was surprisingly proved wrong yesterday. I was a total cynic yesterday, even though I only watched for 15minutes or so. This time, the movie began when Anjali was going away from the Summer Camp to get married to Aman (one thing remained common between my romantic self as a child and my cynical self as an adult: I still think Salman Khan looked much more handsome than SRK; and that red bandhani stole or dupatta, whatever it was, was made for him). I realised that KKHH was no different from our national dramas on TV: the climax happens on the wedding day, or night. I ruefully express my criticism in front of my mother each time a wedding gets ruined, but we have to thank the makers of KKHH to not have let that happened in this movie. They made sure that the expenses did not get wasted, even if the groom got changed at the last minute. In the days when I used to fantasise about marrying my “best guy friend” (well, I have a best guy friend I am not able to talk to much because he is in another continent, but I am not in love with him, and nor is he; and no, he was not the one I was considering), I used to love that scene when Rahul tells Anjali “I love you” in sign language. But this time, I thought it was selfish of him. And it was unfair to Anjali. I mean, she pined for so long, she was loyal to him; but he got what he wanted within a matter of a week or so. How can that possibly happen?

I could include some other movies in the same list. Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein (RHTDM), for example. How can you dream of marrying someone you see once? How can a girl agree to get married after being lied to all the while? How can she regain trust in a matter of few days? More realistically, if he was so ‘Aamchi Mumbai-type’, how did his passport and visa get ready in such less time? Also, if Reena had never seen Sameer before, how could she not have fallen in love-at-first sight with Sameer (Saif..I mean, c’mon). I know what Love-at-first-sight feels like, and I made the mistake of taking it seriously once, even if it was unrequited. But now I don’t, and won’t. I know Love-at-first-sight was invented by those who wanted to add something new to the dictionary of love. There is nothing true about it. I am quite sure no one has fallen in love with me at first sight. It is only lust at first sight, which is real..but since it would sound shallow, those inventors replaced lust with love to fool once-upon-a-time naive-est girls like me.

I am not saying that I don’t believe in love, but for a change, could anyone make movies that showed “Love the one you are with” or movies based on themes of commitment instead of showing superstition-laced (“aankhein band karke dekhna” etc) climaxes.

P.S.- I can still watch RHTDM atleast three times- as RHTDM, Cheli (in Telugu) and Minnale (in Tamil). Because I admit, we watch movies in the hope that we escape the reality, and if we see romance getting real in the movies, we automatically love them. Needless to say, the music was perfect. I even ended up composing a poem for the “one-flash” scene, some 7-8 years back.